The Magnificent (a poem for Colten Boushie) by Lesley Strutt

I would like to dedicate this poem to Colten and all those who are grieving for him, who feel lost, frightened, unheard, unseen, excluded, trapped by systems that do not support them.

The Magnificent   

                 

You are prism, you are kaleidoscope.

The light passes through you. Don’t give yourself away.

Feel for the light. It’s there somewhere.

It may be hidden but it’s there.

Believing this is better than not believing this.

Even if you don’t believe it search for the light anyway.

The darkness is not the enemy. There is only

this moment and what you do with it.

Practicing the light makes more light.

It may not be much at first. Practice the light anyway.

You are magnificent. Know this even in the face of ignorance.

Life is waiting to blaze through you.

Lesley Strutt is a member of PEN Canada and the League of Canadian Poets.  

Colten Boushie by Douglas Sinclair

Colten Boushie

is dead

is / was

only 22

a young man

an Indian

growing up

in a white land

expunged

by

the finger

(flip a bird)

on a trigger

squeezed

by a farmer

who chose

to point

death

at a frightened youth

and two girls

who did

what exactly

as they sat 

in that car

with a flat tire

its windshield

shattered

by a hammer’s

sharp assault

what exactly

was their threat

surrounded

by a marauding 

father and son

intent on

what exactly

with three trapped

kids

staring

at a loaded gun

Indian kids

trespassers

on white land

branded

as aliens

outsiders foreigners

in their own land

natives

on native land

First Nations

whose backyard 

was once 

bigger

than Saskatchewan

with no borders

no fences

now squeezed

onto 14,000 acres

corralled

like a herd

of animals

sub-human

in a cage

in a car

with no escape

from a white man

with a gun

with God and country

on his side

“this land is my land”

as he squeezed 

the trigger

Oops!

Oh well 

It’s only an Indian.

Douglas Sinclair is a retired poet/high tech sales guy living in Toronto who also happens to be a member of the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba and has been involved in the indigenous community in Toronto for a number of years as a former President and board member of Native Child and Family Services of Toronto. He self-published one book of poetry “reflections from a broken stream” and has lived in Toronto for 41 years now with his wife and three adult daughters in Toronto, Victoria and Brooklyn, NY.